Im offically back to having real heat today. I burn corn instead of the normal way of most , using some type of gas. i have an lp furance, but its costs way to much to heat the whole house with it.
My corn furance needed vast repairs after last yr, and i put it off longer than i should of. The heat exchanger had some holes in it, from the acid thats part of burning corn, so on the exhaust i had to replace the bottom and on the secondary heater reclaimer i just had to get a new one. All the piping going outside had to be replaced also. I took the furance out to the shop this summer and completely disassmebled it, cleaned everything within an inch of its life, then yesterday i finally got it back inside and put the whole thing back together. We now have bunches of nice comfortable heat.
It used to cost me about 3700+ to buy 2000 gls of lp for the winter, even at $7 corn its only about $2100 to buy the 300 bu i need for the season. Repairs to the furance only cost me around $400 for parts, so im still winning. I ve had the furance 5yrs now. The best part is that it runs 24/7 putting out nice even heat, with no cold/hot blasts like the lp one did. It also keeps us good at -20 which just about kills off the gas unit. Its good to be warm.

i ve never seen a rat here. Im pretty much into the industrial storage here. I buy 60 to 80bu at a time, haul it home in my auger wagon, then i clean it though my Clipper seed cleaner to remove the cobs and other fine junk, it then go into barrels with lids until i take it into the house and dump it in the hopper. I have enough barrels to do about 30bu, which if real cold lasts me a couple of weeks or so. I only have to clean twice month and then the wagon is empty and i go get more. I see a mouse once in a while, but i had that before the corn furance, so its not really a prob.

I think that any solid fuel heat feels better(warmer) than a furnace:bounce:. What do you pay per bushel of corn buying in that quantity( I see you are in Iowa)? We looked at a corn burning fireplace when we were planning our house, but opted to go with wood due to the maintenance the corn burner required as I would have had to leave an access in the side of the fireplace, not practical as there will be bookshelves there (both sides someday:smilewink:)Enjoy the warmth.

well i havent gotten any yet, but the last check was 6.94. Now if you take 1.89(current lp cost) x 4gls, its 7.56, at 5 gls, its 9.45. That the price it costs to replace the lp with corn. The exchange rate between the to varies a little but you can get the idea.

We decided against wood mostly because of the mess, and the time involved cutting, splitting, hauling, etc, just doesnt make it a good deal for me. I can go the elevator and get 100bu,(one third of my needs) in a wagon and be back and into the shed in about 1/2hr. I can burn a bu of corn down to a about a pint and a half of ash. Yes there is some clean up each week, but nothing more than a wood stove should get. They do make inserts like a fireplace looking one, it just slides out to do major stuff to it.